Not unusual at all, sadly, and many people don't even know they're missing it. I'm glad you have the experience now.

Take this as a call to action. Maintaining and even expanding dark skies is a choice. One that only gets made with the support of people like you who can share things like this.

You only get to read so many words in your life. Make them ones you get something out of.

Now that something could be learning what you don't like in writing. Reading things you aren't into can have value. But that's up to you.

I'd also do some research to see if this book is a known but worth it slump.

Every time I see an author asked this, which is often, they say it doesn't matter. But if you can many of them like to see the markup go to smaller book sellers, independent if you have them.

Remember that the USSR was in full swing at the time. There's a substantial body of work from that corner of the world that didn't totally cross over to Western stories. Even classic works suffer from that. If you look into other regions, like Asia and Africa, you'll find you'll find the same pattern. Eastern European works have their own voice that I'm personally a fan of, and Soviet work is a fascinating look behind the curtain.

Those are dramatically different careers. We can't tell you what you want to do. But technician seems like the clear path to me since you started in a technical direction. Lawyer is never going to get you back to that, but maybe that's something you enjoy.